Police: Rival operator torched bowling alley
A rival bowling alley operator has been arrested and charged with setting a fire that destroyed Vineland's landmark Loyle Lanes last week.
A rival bowling alley operator has been arrested and charged with setting a fire that destroyed Vineland's landmark Loyle Lanes last week.
Vineland Police Lt. Thomas Ulrich said this afternoon Steven Smink, 47, of Northeast Philadelphia, was arrested yesterday along with another man and a juvenile.
Smink, a former Philadelphia warrant officer and accomplished bowler, was the leasee operator of Pike Lanes Family Fun Center in Deerfield, the only other bowling alley in Cumberland County.
Police executed a search warrant at the bowling alley yesterday afternoon.
Also arrested were Felix Antonio Manzano, 21, and a 17-year-old male, both of the 8000 block of Frankford Avenue in Holmesburg.
Smink was arrested at his home on the 9300 block of Verree Road in Bustleton, a Cape Cod that is listed for sale for $419,000.
"We can say with certainty that it was an intentionally set fire," Ulrich said, adding the blaze started on the rear part of the roof.
He would not discuss a possible motive or what was used to set the fire in the predawn hours of Jan. 11.
The blaze destroyed the family-owned Loyle Lanes, a fixture in Vineland for a half century, causing an estimated $3.6 million in damage.
The Loyle family, who spent $400,000 in a recent renovation, have vowed to rebuild.
Smink, Manzano and the teenager have been charged with arson for hire, a first-degree felony, and second-degree felony counts of aggravated arson and conspiracy to commit arson.
